recap of awesome free stuff collection

Some VERY exciting things came into our household the past couple of weeks!  None of these cost us a thing - except the gas to drive a couple miles.

First, the mail.  

Pictured, you will find:

One book, courtesy of PaperBackSwap, aka my new best friend.

One Glad trash bag.

One Ponds face wipe thing.

One Dove shampoo/conditioner sample

Two things from the ASPCA - a fridge magnet wi

th the number for animal poison control, and one window decal stating how many and what kind of animals are inside, in case of emergency.

One $50 gift card to the local movie chain, courtesy of MyPoints, so that Brian and I stand the chance of maybe getting in some date nights even tho money is going to be super-tight this semester.  Seriously, y'all, MyPoints is legit AND awesome.  If you'd like to give me props and sign up for the program, leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll get you the referral.

Second, the plants.  I picked up a couple of plants off craigslist.  One is a struggling little aloe plant that I'm sure I can get back to top shape.  The other is "supposedly" a spider plant.  I was pretty bummed when I realized its misnomer, but hey, a free plant is a free plant.

PS - if you live in Richmond and you'd be willing to share one of your spider plant offshoots with me, I would be eternally grateful.

Third, some pearls.  These came from Hawaii.  More on them later.

And finally, a package!  From Japan!!  Brian's awesome cousin Jackie and her family live in Okinawa right now, thank you USMC, and apparently she was feeling particularly generous when she hit up the dollar store one day.  

Pictured you will find, as best I can tell:

Two balls of acrylic antibacterial yarn, which I plan to work up into some kitchen cloths or scrubbies.

One green and white kerchief, which I have hidden from Brian so that I can use it to decorate the table rather than see it turned into a bandana.  You can do that when you're the wife, you see.

One white-and-dots pencil case?  This will go straight to my knitting box and hold all the little odds and ends like tapestry needles, stitch markers, row markers, counters, etc. together.

One really funny mousepad.

Three Hello Kitty packets of something food-related?

One green packet of something else food-related?  These came wrapped in a recipe, but I haven't quite been able to piece them all together.  

One mystery-sign that definitely involves the Japanese symbol for poops.  Maybe it's telling me to clean up after my pet...

One card depicting two frogs singing Song of Happiness!

We came back to the house all wonkified from many hours of air travel and being back on the East Coast and whatnot, and had this box of treasures to get the energy level back up.  So, thanks again, Jackie & Co. (as I'm sure your thank you note hasn't reached you yet, given that it's still sitting on my desk...because I'm good like that.)